PERC 2013 Abstract Detail Page

Interactive Whiteboards: Effective use of the interactive surface in a physics classroom

Abstract:

This poster will describe how an observational study of a piece of educational technology in the classroom led to the curriculum development.Interactive Whiteboards have become widely used in the last decade. Most studies of the IWB use are fairly general and there is still a great need for studies addressing effective IWB use for teaching specific subjects, including physics. In an observational study, that also included interviews with teachers in a Slovenian high school, we have investigated how the IWB were being used in physics classrooms. Patterns found by the researchers to be effective and the approaches recognized as useful by the teachers were used to design lessons. In those lessons IWB was used in combination with dynamic interaction software (Algodoo). The interactive surface, which gives the IWB an advantage over a standard computer-projector setting, makes possible a creative graphical and even kinesthetic input from the students.